Tag: Firearms Rights

By Joshua Gant, Opslens contributer, and LEO!

“The concept that you can stop crime by increasing gun legislation is so off base that it is dangerous to the safety and security of each and every citizen of the United States.”

As I sit back and watch headline after headline tick across my screen, it’s disgusting to me to witness the assault being waged on our right to keep and bear arms. For the people who seem to have forgotten, those rights are guaranteed by a document that liberals like to side step from time to time called the Constitution of the United States.

I just watched a video of the first shots fired by the Ft. Lauderdale airport shooter. It appears he casually walked through the baggage claim area, drew the gun from his waist, and started to fire. I will say that it looked like he was very determined to shoot the first victim, as he passed many others before he decided to act.

What kind of a person does this type of thing? What kind of person shoots and kills a fellow human being for no reason at all? It is morally reprehensible and against the very basic tenets of most religions, including mine. It is also against how I was raised. So, what can we do to stop — or at least reduce — the occurrence of this type of event?

Well, I hate to burst the bubble of all those who think that changing any laws will make a difference. These types of events have been going on throughout the entire history of this nation and many others. And as our nation grows, and more and more people crowd into the available land system, more of these types of shootings and morally reprehensible acts (The Facebook Torture Crew comes to mind) will happen. The very freedoms that we cherish so much are what make this type of act possible. You cannot have safety without true freedom. You cannot legislate morality into the laws of our land.

This year in the Florida House and Senate the Representatives and Senators came out swinging for the fences when it came to restoring some of the rights of Florida’s 1.8 MILLION Concealed Weapons License holders and for that matter for all of Florida’s citizens.

In Florida currently, it is illegal to openly carry either a long gun or handgun unless you are participating in specific activities such as hunting (hard to do without open carrying), fishing (Florida has these huge lizards that can eat people!) and camping (bears, poisonous snakes, and self-protection) among some other things. In addition, it is also illegal to carry a concealed firearm onto or into many places such as college campuses, “a career center”, a total of 15 locations. Some of which make sense like “Any detention facility, prison, or jail..” that serves as a security issue, and I can understand that one, but a “career center”? Really how many problems have there been at career centers before this law?

Florida is one of only 5 states that do not allow some form of open carry either with or without a license. Currently, 11 States have “Constitutional Carry,” meaning unrestricted open carry of firearms. 34 States have some form of open carry. Only 5 states have no for of lawful open carry. Before you say “Hey but Florida does have some type of open carry!” No, they do not. F.S.S. 790.053 prohibits any form of open carry, the other I cited are exceptions in the concealed carry law.

Now back to our legislators. As I said, they came out with a great group of very pro-rights, pro-firearms bills this year. Everything from an open carry bill to campus carry and others. One of the biggest bills they have submitted was a change to Florida’s “Use of Force” law that would change the way Floridians have to defend themselves from the courts and not just criminals. Currently in Florida, if you use self-defense as a defense in a shooting or any other kind of weapon (knife, car, anything you can use to defend yourself) you have to go before a Judge and prove your innocence. You heard me right, what is the normal legal standard for everything in the United States of America, innocent until proven guilty, does not apply in Florida if you use force to defend yourself. The legislators are trying to fix that and put the “burden of proof” back on the state to prove and not the victim. The burden of proof should always be on the state to prove your guilt not the victim to prove innocence.

But this is where the good news stops and the nightmare for Florida’s citizens starts. The “burden of proof” bill has made it through both the House and Senate, but because the two branches differ on some specific wording, there is a distinct possibility that this great and desperately needed change could go nowhere unless the Senate and House can agree on some language.

But what about the other 19 or so pro-rights bills? Well, they have all been stymied by one Republican Senator. That’s right a Republican Senator who is against restoring freedoms and rights to the citizens of Florida. Sen. Anitere Flores has decided for whatever reason to come out against any and all firearms rights bills, and many other bills put out by her fellow Republicans. She has yet to tell anyone why, but rumors have it that she is thinking of jumping parties and running for Miami mayor since she is term limited out. We will have to see.

So why is Florida so messed up and apparently not going anywhere, again this year? Well the NRA and State firearms rights groups do not seem to be making much headway and have not in the past. Some question the methods and the results of the NRA since they gave Sen. Flores an A+ rating on firearms rights. But it’s hard to blame them when Sen. Flores sent a letter to the NRA literally begging for a good rating. Wonder if she knew then what she would be doing to the citizens of Florida? Other pro-firearms frights groups in Florida have seemingly not been able to do much either. Either from lack of effort or leadership, it makes no difference the outcome is the same, nothing happens, and bills go nowhere.

Another issue is that many of the really good bills have not even seen the light of a committee meeting or any kind of discussion. For a bill in Florida to go anywhere, they have to be heard in Committee (usually), and a way that Florida legislators have taken to killing any bill they don’t like is to just not schedule it for any committee hearing. That way they can say they submitted the bill, making them look like they were doing something, but really knew it would go nowhere. Even the author and sponsor of a group of good bills this year has failed to even schedule his own pro-rights bill in his own committee! Is that why he wrote the bill? So he could fail to schedule it for a hearing and let it die without even seeing a fair vote in committee? Didn’t politicians get the hint when the country

As a last resort in Florida, the Senate or House President can pull a bill and place it in another committee or put it on a special schedule for a hearing and vote on the floor. But if he did that he would have to admit that the committee chairs were not doing what they should. It would mean they were actually having to lead instead of just being a figurehead.

So what can Floridians expect from their legislators this year? From the looks of things so far, not much. Seems like the same old story that they had from the last few years. It is even looking like they may not even get a much-needed change to the use of force laws because the legislators are saying they cannot agree on wording in the bills two versions. Well at least the legislators can say they tried, just like last year, and the year before and so on……oh and the groups that are fighting for Floridians? Well, nothing has changed there either. The “grassroots” groups that claim to be fighting for your rights, well not much fighting going on there. I was taught at a very early age, and it served me well in the military and in law enforcement, if something does not work, try something new or change the way you are doing it until it does. Maybe they will step up and really start to make a difference, or they will stay in the shadows, that part is completely up to them.

Sorry Florida, you are listed as one of the “Five” states without real meaningful Firearms Rights laws while other states get Constitutional Carry and all kinds of other improvements.

Any time there is a discussion about gun laws, concealed carry versus open carry, and the various other issues revolving around the possession of firearms, someone will always bring up the issue that law enforcement will be confused and possibly shoot a licensed concealed carry or open carry firearms holder if involved in a mass shooting, Lone Wolf, or terrorist attack. Some of the anti-gun crowd like to use the “police won’t know who the bad guy is” argument or the “good guys with guns don’t stop bad guys with guns” line against arguments for less gun control.

If you are lucky enough to live in a state that allows concealed carry without a license — or open carry, for that matter — count yourself fortunate. If you live in a state that requires a license to exercise your Second Amendment rights, you fall within the majority of the nation. Either way if you carry a firearm and choose to do so (and what logical, realist, thinking adult wouldn’t) not many firearms classes cover what to do if you are caught up in some kind of a mass shooting or active shooter situation. So let’s try and cover a few options that you can pick from, gleaned from a few decades of training in firearms and law enforcement.

When did it stop being cool or hip or whatever word you want to use in our society to be self-reliant and able to take care of yourself and your family? When did our ability to defend ourselves and defend those that we love become something that was considered wrong, or evil?

How in the world did we raise so many people in these United States to be afraid to defend themselves, even to the point of not fighting back when they know there is no other recourse but to die groveling in front of some lunatic or a madman with a gun?

I had a discussion, just the other day, with someone in an internet group who asked what they could have in their home other than a gun to defend their home and their family from an intruder. The conversation went on and I was informed that the person asking the question was doing so for a family member who was “very liberal” and scared of firearms. I thought to myself, how did this person who is afraid of firearms and “does not want to hurt the intruder” make it to this point? What possibly could have caused them to be this way?

The recent shooting of a suspect, who was attacking a Florida Deputy, occurred when a law abiding, lawfully carrying, outstanding citizen shot and killed the attacker, quite possibly saving the deputy’s life. While no one wants to have to shoot someone, that is what happened.

The difference between this shooting and most self-defense shootings is the fact that it was witnessed (to some even directed by) the deputy. There is no question as to the justifiability of this shooting. By Florida law it’s a clear-cut case of self-defense and defense of another. Florida law permits you to not only defend yourself but also others if they are being attacked and you think they may be killed or suffer great bodily harm. (F.S.S. 776.012 Use or threatened use of force in defense of person.)

That said, there is no doubt that it was a lawful shooting. It was surprising when I saw another article which stated a local gun shop had to provide the citizen with another firearm to carry because his was taken into custody by the police. This was the point where I started to think as a cop. I am on the scene of a shooting that I know for a fact is not a crime because no criminal act was committed by the citizen. So I am looking at this particular case and wondered to myself, “What justification would I have to take the shooter’s firearm into evidence if I was there at the scene?”

It happened again! Another attack on a college campus. This time it was Ohio State University, and it was not a gun being used, but a knife that wounded 11 people. The suspect (I will not dignify or promote the terrorists name) is dead of a gunshot wound from a campus police officer who just happened to be in the area at the time of the attack. What in the world are we doing America? Why can we not stop these attacks on our college campuses and other places where we gather in large numbers? Why can’t we just pass a law? Maybe more gun control laws would help. Take away all the guns and the attacks would stop right? If guns were harder to get, then these attacks would stop right? I forgot, this one was with a knife and it was a gun that saved more people from being injured or killed. Yes, I know that it was a police officer that shot and killed the suspect, but what if that officer had not been in the area at the time of the incident? What if it had taken them the normal 3-5 minutes to respond like it does everywhere in the country (and that is being kind and conservative in response times, they are much longer in many places).

What can we do to lessen the impact or to stop these kinds of terrorist attacks when they happen? Let’s look at this realistically and not emotionally like the large majority of the anti-gun crowd. Put away your fear and your hate for all things gun-related for just a few minutes as you read this. Since this was a knife attack and had nothing to do with guns, with the exception that a gun, in fact, saved everyone’s lives, consider the facts that gun laws would have done nothing to change the outcome of this. Or could they have?